


Stake-In

by 51PegasiB



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Canon-Typical Cannibalism, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Suicidal Thoughts, negative self-talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22453492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/51PegasiB/pseuds/51PegasiB
Summary: Vee doesn't like waiting. Eddie is not well-practiced at meditating. Internal struggles can move people farther than the physical ones.
Relationships: Eddie Brock & Venom Symbiote
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43





	Stake-In

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skymning](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skymning/gifts), [NienteZero](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NienteZero/gifts).



> Sometimes we just need help working through the brain-mire. 
> 
> I heartily endorse Venom's meal planning. Some of my other personal biases are also visible, here.
> 
> Thanks to NienteZero and Skymning for betaing this for me.

A black figure crept through the night. It might have, perhaps, been a man, but it seemed unlikely as it scaled the chain-link fence in a single bound and went up the side of the brick warehouse with startling ease just after the sun had set. 

It may actually have been a little too large to be a human being. If anyone had been there to notice and remark on it they might have remarked on its broad shoulders or the gleam when its black skin caught a glint off the street light. 

But once it had reached the roof of the squat industrial building, the head that poked up over the edge was definitely human. 

**How long will we have to wait?** Vee asked. 

“You know as much as I do,” Eddie whispered aloud. 

**I know SO much more than you do, Eddie.**  


“About this. About this particular evening we know a roughly equal amount.”

**Oh. Sure.**

Eddie let out a frustrated sigh. 

**Wait, so...how long?**

“How are you three thousand years old and yet you have no fuckin’ patience?” 

**Journalism is boring.**

“Agree to disagree,” Eddie said. He knew better than to get drawn into Vee in this mood.

**I want to get to the part where we eat them.**

“I know.”

**Like, really soon,** Vee’s voice rumbled in his head.

“Well, no one is here, yet,” Eddie said, slowly. 

**Right, so…**

“ **How long do we have to wait?** ” Eddie finished along with him. “I honestly don’t know. Probably a while.”

Vee pulled his body back to flop out dramatically on the ground. 

“Hey! I could’ve hit my head,” Eddie hissed, sitting back up.

**I wouldn’t let you do that,** Vee protested. 

Eddie’s shoulders were tensing up. He swore he could feel a headache starting somewhere behind his right eye. 

**You aren’t getting a migraine. You’re just being a baby,** Vee informed him. 

“Why don’t we play the quiet game?” Eddie said.

**I’m not falling for that again,** Vee grumbled. 

“Just...leave it, for a while. Let’s try to meditate till something happens.”

**Okay.** Vee agreed.

“Seriously? I didn’t expect you to be that easy.” 

**Meditating is doing something** , Vee informed him. **I thought we weren’t going to do anything**.

* * *

Eddie resisted pulling out his phone. He lay on the cold, gritty surface of the roof. The concrete pressed up against his shoulder blades and pushed his back into a weird position. 

He took one deep breath. Then another. He tried to focus inward. He wondered what Annie was doing right now. He wondered what his shithead dad was doing. 

_ NOPE. Bad mental track. Okay. I’m here. I’m in the present. I feel the concrete holding me up. Feel the air brushing over my face. Maybe Vee is right maybe this is stupid. Maybe what I do doesn’t make any difference at all.  _

_ There’s so much wrong in the world and our methods are...extreme. Maybe we really shouldn’t be loose on the planet.  _

_ Concrete is so hard. It’s solid. It’s funny it’s a liquid, then it’s just such a solid solid. It always looks kind of creamy when they’re pouring it out. Like cake batter.  _

_ Jesus, how long has it been since I’ve cooked?  _

_ At least I worked out this morning. I need to have better habits. and a better job. And a better personality, ugh. Annie said my ego needs constant feeding. Does it? Is my ego the Venom of my consciousness? How is Dan so modest while being a surgeon? Why am I not more like Dan?  _

_ Ugh Ugh Ugh. Maybe I should just have stayed home and had a drink. Maybe I should jump off this roof. No. Not high enough.  _

**Enough.** Vee said.  **This isn’t working.**

“What? I’m trying. We’ve been going a while here. It’s been what...forty-five minutes?” 

**It’s been less than fifteen** , Vee said with exasperation.  **And you’re thinking about self-injuring which you’re not allowed to do** . 

“Says who?”

**Hey. You’re my ride. You can’t beat up the body without fucking up my night.**

“I’m overwhelmed at your outpouring of support.” Eddie said, dryly.

**You think I would let you fall on the pavement if you threw yourself off this building?** Vee asked indignantly.

“Wasn’t really contemplating it so seriously,” Eddie protested. 

**I don’t want you contemplating it at all.** There was a pause.  **And you shouldn’t be like Dan.**

“What? I thought you liked Dan. Where did this come from?”

**You’re the one who was thinking it. Really loudly, too.**

“Thinking what?” 

**Thinking how you should be more like Dan. Annie wouldn’t have liked you more if you were more like Dan.**

“Oh no? Because she’s somewhere with him right now and I’m on a roof with you.”

**You wouldn’t be you if you were more like Dan. So she wouldn’t like you.**

“I could be...people can change and still be themselves. What the fuck, Vee?”

**You what the fuck, Eddie.**

“I don’t think that sentence made the sense you think you made.”

**Stop bad-mouthing yourself.**

“You bad-mouth me all the time.”

**I do not!** Vee was indignant now.

“You said journalism was boring.”

**This part is.**

“So…”

**You are NOT JOURNALISM, Eddie.**

“I…” Eddie thought about that. “I mean. I kind of am.”

**Now who’s not making sense?**

Eddie shut up and thought about that for a minute. 

**You *are* a good person, Eddie. And you’re more than just the things you do.**

“I don’t even. If I’m not what I do, what am I?” Eddie asked, a little lost as to how they’d gotten here.

**You are what you are.**

“Tautology.” 

**What’s that?**

“Something that’s true but not really an argument for anything. Of course I am what I am. By definition.”

**Okay. You are what you eat.**

Eddie snorted. 

**You’re also what you do and what you say and you’re what you hear and you’re the cells you slough off and you’re what you think about everything that comes into you or goes out.**

Eddie was silent again, for a moment. 

**You are more than the sum of your parts, because you’re what you synthesize of your parts. All the disparate pieces of you are brought together by your brain and how it works. An individual snowflake of neurotransmitters and electrical pulses. Uniquely you.**

Eddie wanted to laugh at that, but he could feel from the thrumming in his gut, how much Vee meant it. It was a really big emotion. Like...orbital big. Gravity-well big. 

“Vee, I…” he began. 

**Shhh. Someone!** Vee rumbled. 

Eddie fell silent, his mind suddenly on the unfolding drama before him. They had finally trailed the offshore guns connection to this warehouse. This was the crossover point. Whoever was receiving the illegal weapons was doing it here and they were about to find out who.

* * *

They didn’t manage to circle back around to the conversation from the rooftop till much later. Vee was finally feeling sated after the blood-fest and they had a lead on where the weapons were supposed to head next. 

They were walking home through the pre-dawn streets, the city eerily quiet in the pre-dawn twilight.

As much as he liked to think he was uncomfortable with Vee’s level of violence, Eddie felt clear-headed and free as they walked. The air was chill and clean and he had a bounce in his step. 

  
  


He found himself whistling quietly as he jogged through the streets. 

**You’re perky.**

“Your ASS is perky,” he shot back. Whatever else the blood-fest had been, it was definitely something concrete they had gotten done. The world was down some gun-runners and some drug gang thugs and he felt pretty good about that. 

“Hey, let’s try to figure out a plan that will let us get away with eating The Sacklers” he said. He could almost taste Vee’s answering grin. 

**Works for me** . 

Suddenly a scream came from somewhere nearby. Eddie was already running towards it as Vee slid over his skin, turning his strides into bounds. 

They skidded into an alley a block from where they started to see a dark skinned woman getting the crap kicked out of her by a tall white guy. Venom walked into the narrow space with deliberate steps. He grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck. 

“ **Yeah. I wouldn’t do that, if I were you** ,” they said to the man who was now blanching in his grip. 

“Whhhhat. What are you?” 

**“We are Venom,** ” he replied, and bit cleanly through the man’s top half, tossing the rest lightly into a dumpster as he approached the cowering woman. 

“Please don’t hurt me,” she said. 

“ **We would not do that.** ” 

The woman slowly untensed, though clearly wary of the large teeth and claws on her rescuer. “Thank...thank you.” There were old bruises down one of her arms and on her neck. 

“ **We could see you home.”**

“Uh...that’s okay. I...if he’s really gone, I don’t think there’s much for me to be afraid of.” she stood and smoothed her miniskirt down. “Can I do anything to...repay you?”

**“We do not require payment.** ”

“Well,” She said, with a wry smile. “Never thought I’d say this, but I guess that makes you my hero.”

Venom grinned at her, then was surprised when she stood on tiptoe to give them a kiss on the cheek and set out into the emerging morning sun.

**"See? We are what we are."** Venom growled into the empty alley.

“ _ Hero of sex workers and punisher of pimps...I guess there are worse things to be.” _

**"We are more than that."**

“ _ Yeah. I know. We are Venom. Let’s head home, snowflake, and write our story.” _

Venom grinned and sprinted up the side of the nearest building and across the roofs of San Francisco. 

  
  



End file.
